Welcome to #MSUrbanSTEM
The MSU-WIPRO STEM & Leadership Teaching Fellowship program is the culmination of the partnership between global IT giant Wipro, Chicago Public Schools, and Michigan State University's College of Education. Fellows participate in an innovative year-long integrated learning experience to build STEM teachers' capacity and empower them to lead and inspire transformative, innovative practices in urban K-12 schools.
Molly Lahart’s ImagineIT Project Fosters Girls’ Excitement for STEM
Careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) offer women the opportunity to engage in some of the most exciting dimensions of discovery and technological innovation. However, there’s a huge gender gap in choosing STEM related professions. Molly Lahart is hoping to change that! Her...
Tinker Tales: Take 2 – Using Multimodal Composition in the Classroom
Albert Einstein once said, “Play is the highest form of research.” Play is definitely the #MSUrbanSTEM way! The fellows dove a little deeper and just published their second Tinker Tale. These tinker tales are video stories of play…deep-play. Deep-play is defined as, “an engagement with rich problems of...
A Teacher’s (Quick and Dirty) Guide to Cosmos- Another Publication from #MSUrbanSTEM
We’ve done it again! The 2015/2016 fellowship has published another professional resource for educators titled A Teacher’s Quick and Dirty Guide to Cosmos. The book “stems” from the mentor text, Cosmos by Carl Sagan. After a professional study of the book, the fellows worked in small groups....
New Beginnings For Our First and Second Cohort
Our second cohort is now in full swing. Many great things are being implemented in classrooms across Chicago. While our new fellows are in the beginning phase, our veterans are also in a beginning phase-the beginning of a strong commitment to great leadership. At the farewell banquet, Punya Mishra reflected on a...
Stephen Tow’s Dream Makers Have A New Place To Tinker
It all began by imagining…imagining a space where kids and their ideas could flourish. Stephen Tow’s ImagineIT project is built around the idea, “If you can dream it, you can make it.” Tow is a technology coordinator at Goudy Technology Academy in Chicago. He refers to his students as dream...
The Marriage of Science and Engineering = Spork
The marriage of Science and Engineering=Spork. Huh? Karoline Sharp took an interesting road down the path of comparing Science and Technology. Her thought-provoking comparison of a fork and a spoon closely formulates the union of “marriage.” In her video, Sharp conveys the message that scientists will...
Nurturing A Proactive Spirit in our Youngest Scientists
How do we teach children to care? How do they feel connected to their communities and know they can make a difference in the world? A few members of the 2015/2016 MSU UrbanSTEM fellowship believe that building connections at an early age is the key. They believe that nurturing three simple components can make a...
Taking a Step Outside of Our Comfort Zone=Our Learning Zone
The summer semester is behind us. Forty Nine new fellows spent the summer learning together and setting new goals for the 2015/2016 school year. In their recent final reflection papers, a common theme emerged…good-bye comfort zones! Fear, frustration, struggles, and apprehension were all keywords in their...
Here’s to our New 2015/2016 #MSUrbanSTEM cohort!
The Back to School hype is here and so is a new 2015/2016 #MSUrbanSTEM fellowship! Last year, we had a total of 25 participating fellows, but this year we welcome 49 new educators to our MSU/WIPRO Urban STEM fellowship. Our new fellows, along with our amazing instructional team recently met for nearly two weeks of...
The Struggles, Joys, and Motivations of 25 Leaders in STEM Education
The 2014/2015 MsurbanSTEM fellowship has released another publication titled This I Believe. The fellowship collaboratively published it’s first collection, Roots of Stem, in September 2014. Following a year long commitment, these 25 influential educators share their work and ideas as individuals and a team...
Kenn Freeman Creates an App as a Solution for Communication Craziness!
Kenn Freeman is a math, science, and technology teacher at Spencer Tech Academy. He sees numerous students, which comes with infinite communication responsibilities. An idea was sparked during a face-to-face meeting with his #MSUrbanSTEM fellows. The fellowship explored Appy Pie, which is a mobile app platform...
We Celebrate the Graduation of Our First #MSUrbanSTEM Fellowship
July 7th was a big night! A reception was held honoring our first MSU-WIPRO Urban STEM & Leadership Fellowship. The reception highlighted the innovative thinking, hard work and dedication of 25 extraordinary educators. Their journey started a little over a year ago. Twenty five fellows were accepted and the...